History of Volkswagen

﻿In 1933, Adolf Hitler ordered the famous designer Ferdinand Porsche and Jacob Merlino, one of the Directors of Daimler-Benz, to create a people's car, which could satisfy all the needs of ordinary buyer, the cost model was not supposed to exceed one thousand Reichsmarks. So began the history of the Volkswagen", got its name from the German "Volks-Wagen", i.e. the people's car. Jakob Verlin has put forward a proposal that Dr. Porsche began developing the model, and the company "Daimler-Benz", would be responsible for the technical side of the issue, providing as well, and its production capacity. The basis of people's car became the model Porsche Typ 60. So, I saw the light in 1934 the first prototype, and mass production of the car started, 4 years later.

In 1937 he founded the company "Volkswagen", which was to become the symbol of the new Germany. Within the shortest time was built ultramodern factory in Wolfsburg, laid down for employees of the new company. In 1938 were presented to the army modification of the car, called the Volkswagen Type 82 and 85. In General, the people's car formed the basis of the whole model range, occupying a leading position in the automotive market in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, while the selling price of the basic version was equal to 1550 the REICHSMARK. In addition, during the Second World War on the plants of Daimler was issued more than 30 thousand amphibians on the basis of people's car, which were designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

However, in 1945, after the overthrow of Hitler and the end of the war, Ferdinand Porsche was in prison, and the city of Wolfsburg was in the British zone of occupation, which led to significant changes in the management of the concern "Volkswagen". However, until 1948, the British forces managed to get for their own needs about 20 thousand copies of various modifications of the people's car. In 1949 full control of Volkswagen" was transferred to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was forced to start exporting cars to other countries. Only in 1955, the model is called the Volkswagen beetle, and was made in the original, civil modification. In 1950, for the money of investors from the Netherlands, the engineers of the German mark began work on creating a full size van, dubbed the Volkswagen bowls. In 1953-1959, were opened Assembly plants of Volkswagen in Brazil, Australia, South Africa and Mexico.

By 1960 was presented with 9 new models of brands VW, which was based on the platform of the Volkswagen beetle. Using proven base years, new versions were completely devoid of shortcomings that significantly reduced the cost of production of the new car, which was only required to replace the body and the power unit under the different needs of its target consumers.

The next important step in the history of the German car company, began in 1965, when Volkswagen bought the company "Daimler-Benz" brand "Audi", incorporating it into its composition by combining top management and engineering staffs. It appeared from the company "Volkswagen-Audi", later renamed "Volkswagen Group".

In 1969, after the composition of the Volkswagen entered a small firm for construction of power units called "NSU", in the management of the company decided to move away from the classic layout Beetle, proposed by Ferdinand Porsche. So through the year were presented to the first front-wheel drive cars Volkswagen" in which the power unit was located in the front. In parallel, intensive work was carried out to create the first joint with the brand "Audi" car, which began in 1974, a compact hatchback Volkswagen Golf, the progenitor of the same class of cars. The model was notable not only for its compact size, but a good combination of convenience, agility and lightness that allowed her to become the new leader of sales on the German automotive market.

In the same year, the company plants in Wolfsburg rolled off the Assembly line last instances of the model VW beetle, but production continued factories brand Volkswagen in Brazil and Mexico. In Europe the model was replaced by two models - the Passat and Golf. In just 2.5 years, sales of the compact hatchback Golf, sold more than one million cars that brought the German mark in the leaders of the European automotive industry, and the profits formed the basis for the creation of a new generation of production capacity "Volkswagen". In 1975 in the Wake of the success of the Course was presented and its simplified version, the Volkswagen Polo, under the hood which houses the power unit with a capacity of 40 horsepower. In addition, in 1976, on the basis of the Audi 50 was developed version of the Volkswagen Polo sedan.

In 1983 he started the next update of the model range of the company "Volkswagen", presented models of the second generation Golf and Jetta compact sedan, built on the basis of a small hatchback, with the same range of engines, but in a totally reworked the design of the body. It was also presents a new generation of sports models Volkswagen Scirocco, under the hood lined with engines from 120 to 200 horsepower.

In 1982, the leadership of the German company signed an agreement on close cooperation with the Spanish automaker firm "SEAT", which was experiencing financial difficulties, but successfully kept afloat by producing inexpensive cars, popular among ordinary consumers. However, financial problems still broke the Spanish brand. This led in 1986 to the transfer of a controlling 51% stake in the company under the control of the brand Volkswagen, which has paid all the debts of the firm "SEAT", and included it in its membership, using the production capacities for the production of their models in the automotive market in Spain and Portugal. Also in 1982, were presented the world's first five-cylinder engines, installed on Volkswagen Passat second generation.

In 1988 he was presented model Volkswagen Corrado, which took the place of the model Sirocco among the actual hire company, and the Sirocco was discontinued. Successful financial performance and consistently high sales of vehicles of the Volkswagen enabled the management to re-think about purchasing a new unit that would have helped the German mark to occupy a new niche in the automotive market.

In 1990 in Europe have been hit hard by the economic crisis, but at the expense of correct strategy and huge profits, Volkswagen has been one of the few industrial enterprises of the European continent, which has not undergone a substantial decrease in demand for its products and a sharp drop in profits. However, the Czech company škoda, specializing in the creation of affordable cars for the Eastern European market, lucky at times less, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Before the engineers of the German concern loomed the prospect of creating another line-up of vehicles that resulted in the complete absorption of the Czech manufacturer škoda, and Volkswagen" was opened out to the car market in Eastern Europe.

At the same time, under the control of the Volkswagen gets another famous brand, "Porsche", which rapidly suffer economic collapse due to excess income spending on upgrading and expanding production. Resulting in the subsequent 16 years, mark "Porsche" was completely under the control of Volkswagen, another brainchild of Ferdinand Porsche. However, in 2007, after a faithful distribution of profits, was formed management company "Porsche", which was fully redeemed concern "Volkswagen", giving him full control over the activities of the company for the production of sports cars Porsche AG.

It is noteworthy that in the 90s, the designers of the company "Volkswagen" begin to conduct their experiments to create a universal platform for building different cars of the same class, and the first experiments were on the models of Golf, Bora, Audi 50 and the SEAT of Albia. Thanks to the use of a single platform, the group is no longer required to conduct long-term field tests of each model, and the cost of one car was lower by 22%.

The next turning point in the history of German concern "Volkswagen" was in 1998, when under the control of one of the largest automakers in the world have moved three brand priymalnya hire - Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. A year later, under the control of the "Audi", which became an independent division of the brand Volkswagen, was transferred to the brand Lamborghini, received serious technical basis for the issuance of new sports cars. Brand Bentley in the new hierarchy of the German company was allotted to the share of one of the largest players in the market of luxury cars, due to the fact that in addition to all property of the British brand, under the control of a Volkswagen also got the production capacity of the company "rolls-Royce". Began production of a number of cars that without superfluous modesty began to call cars for millionaires.

However, the most difficult task was set before French brand "Bugatti", the engineers was commissioned in 2000 to create the most powerful and fastest car in history, using all the latest developments of the company "Audi". After 5 years the Chapter titled Bugatti Veyron was inscribed in the history of German concern, and the vehicle with the power unit with a capacity of one thousand horsepower became the first in history Hypercam, setting a number of speed records.

Two thousand years were marked by mass participation of Volkswagen in Motorsport competitions. In the period from 2000 to 2013 factory team Audi and Bentley won 11 victories in the prestigious marathon 24 hours of Le Mans, setting many records, as well as providing the group with the most advanced developments in the field of recovery of kinetic energy, aerodynamics and selective transmission with double clutch.

Also, in 2002, was presented the first off-road cars "Volkswagen", for the promotion of which it was decided to start to play in the legendary rally-RAID Paris-Dakar, where in the middle of the 20th century managed to win two times the company "Porsche". Racing prototype models Volkswagen Touareg won first place in the race Paris-Dakar 2009-2011, displacing more experienced competitors with leading positions. In addition, these developments have enabled the company Volkswagen to launch the serial production of all-wheel drive chassis for lightweight hatchbacks and sedans. And since 2011, it was decided to start to play with the factory team "Skoda" in the world rally championship, where in 2013 the prototype of the Volkswagen running French driver Sebastien Ogier won the individual championship, breaking the dominance of the brand "Citroen", which lasted almost 10 years.

By 2012, all vehicles of the Volkswagen were upgraded, and the total number of markets reached 150. In addition, the company invests heavily in the development of its business in China, the third scale of the automotive market in the world.